Is Big Boys based on a true story? The poignant inspiration behind Danny explained

Big Boys is back for its third and final season, and many viewers are wondering how much of the touching story is based on real life.

Big Boys aired to critical acclaim in 2022, earning creator Jack Rooke a place on the prestigious BAFTA Breakthrough programme. The series went on to receive multiple BAFTA nominations for series 1, and bring home wins at the BAFTA Craft Awards and Royal Television Society awards for series 2. With the arrival of series 3, there's sure to be a plethora of even more awards around the corner.

Comedy and grief collide in a show that tackles hugely difficult themes including coming out, mental health and toxic masculinity. The first two series built a uneasy feeling of dread about the trajectory the life of one of the key characters was taking, weaving it among the laughs and feel-good moments. This had led viewers to ask how much of the show is based on real life, and if the character Danny is a real person.

Warning: Contains references to suicide that some readers may find distressing.

Is Big Boys based on a true story?

Big Boys is semi-autobiographical and is based on the life of creator, Jack Rooke. The show follows a character also named Jack as he arrives at university after having deferred following the sudden loss of his father the year before. Jack Rooke really did struggle with depression when his father, Laurie, died from cancer.

While at university, the real Jack really did have a straight best friend, named Olly. In the series, the character of Danny is loosely based on Olly, who sadly took his own life a couple of years after the pair finished university.

Following Olly's death, among many aspects of grief Jack grappled with, finding details of how his friend ended his life online was particularly disturbing, and he's campaigned for more sensitive reporting in the media when suicide is involved.

"It was just placed there - right in the middle of this online copy - and it was just horrendous," Jack told Newsbeat, adding, "It's a really brutal, cruel thing for anybody to have to have gone through. It was just a journalist who was trying to gather all these details, all these bits of information, in a really speculative and unhelpful way to create a bit of content that for me - and a lot of other people - was a really traumatic experience to go through."

A decade ago, Jack Rooke took his experiences about grief and friendship, and turned them into a show, Good Grief, which he took to the Edinburgh Fringe - and Big Boys was born. Speaking about the emotional final series, Jack says, "My therapist suggested that Big Boys is subconsciously about me not being able to say a proper goodbye to certain people or periods of my life, and so to give this show a final send-off is a huge honour."

He adds, "I’ve known the ending since the pilot, and I hope it still represents those first Edinburgh shows but also the collaborative genius of our incredible cast, crew and creative team. I’ll be indebted to them always for giving me the funniest, happiest years making Big Boys 1-3. Thank you!"

Jack also took inspiration for his Edinburgh Fringe show and Big Boys from other areas of his life, taking elements from his hometown of Watford and his matriarchal family. Speaking to Attitude, he recalls writing Good Grief with his nan, explaining, "Which is me and her in her council flat sharing biscuits, and basically just bitching about people who p****d us off after Dad had died."

The writer has spent the past 10 years working as an ambassador for CALM, the charity that supports people impacted by suicidal feelings. His experiences also inspired his book, Cheer the F*ck Up. "It’s about giving people coping mechanisms because, let’s face it, if you are really depressed and anxious in this country, you could wait f****ng weeks for help," he says of his book.

To find out more about CALM, visit www.thecalmzone.net